Natalie Portman wants women to know it’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, she doesn’t just want women to know it’s okay, she thinks mistakes should be encouraged.
Watch: 7 Times Natalie Portman Looked Completely Flawless.
After taking the stage at ELLE’s annual Women in Hollywood event to discuss her latest film Lucy in the Sky, the Oscar-winning actress took the opportunity to deliver a powerful speech on equality and the need for women to have the freedom to make mistakes.
While discussing her character Lucy, a high-achieving astronaut who struggles to return to the “mundane routines of everyday life” post-space voyage, Natalie explained that the experience of playing Lucy led her to “yearn for a woman’s right to fuck up.”
“To fuck up and not be interminably punished for it,” Natalie said. “Because we know, as we tell our kids, that making mistakes is the only way we learn. We know that the biggest moments of our growth come out of our worst blunders. And if we have to play it safe to avoid mistakes, to avoid the severity of consequences for women who make mistakes, we can never be all that we potentially could be.
She continued, “Over the past couple of years I’ve gotten to meet more of you – and by you, I mean those of you who identify as women in the entertainment industry – than I have in my entire 25-year career. To my great delight, I’ve encountered some of the kindest, most thoughtful, most interesting people I’ve ever met. Once, a long time ago, a guy I dated told me that his father had warned him not to date actresses or other female impersonators. And I laughed but I also internalised that people think of actresses as crazy and as difficult and as demanding and as artificial. And recently, as I sat in room after room of actresses because of Time’s Up, I was struck by how down to earth, how empathetic, how thoughtful and multifaceted each of the women I met were, without exception. I realised that success for women relies on good behaviour. And that the women who are in this room are probably the hardest working, the least complaining, the best personalities you can find.
“Of course here, everyone is super talented and smart but also easy to be around, she continued. “Because if you are a woman and you’re a pain in the ass, you will not get another job. And meanwhile, how will we know if we’ve reached equality? Is it going to be when this room is a room of successful women and it’s full of assholes? Is it going to be when our movies tank and then we get a raise the next time? Is it going to be when we commit a series of crimes and get elected anyway?
“I hope not. I hope, more optimistically, that equality goes in the direction of men being held to the same standards that women are held to. That alongside talent, kindness, respect, and being easy to work with are valued as essential characteristics to getting hired. And that truly bad behaviour prevents you from getting another job. And that when the offence is forgivable when the post-mistake learning is real, people of all genders get the second chance that men currently do.
“So, our job in this room as leaders in our industry is fucked up. The most powerful example we can set for the next generation would be for us to do that most human of things, make mistakes and then not follow the narrative of the doomed woman or the fallen women or the destroyed woman. Go out post-mistake and succeed wildly. So fuck up and thrive, sisters.”
Go, girl.
Natalie Portman wants women to know it’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, she doesn’t just want women to know it’s okay, she thinks mistakes should be encouraged.
Watch: 7 Times Natalie Portman Looked Completely Flawless.
Natalie Portman wants women to know it’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, she doesn’t just want women to know it’s okay, she thinks mistakes should be encouraged.
Watch: 7 Times Natalie Portman Looked Completely Flawless.
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